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St. Andrew's Church
An Anglican Church • Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Preached by
Stuart Pike
Rector
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Proper 29 B - God's Dream
Mark 10: 35-45
22 October 2006
St. Andrew's Church, Grimsby
There is something just so wonderfully right about the Fall season. Yes, we know that winter is on its way, especially first thing in the morning when you can feel the nip of cold air on your face. But you only need to walk for a short distance through the colourful trees to realize that, even though winter means a kind of death, this dying called Fall is as it is supposed to be. To the individual plants in the garden, fall looks to be a defeat. Yet, there is a bigger plan, which is God's plan. We can go outside and only think, winter is coming, or else we can be in the present moment and experience the beauty.
It is difficult for us to understand that God's bigger plan has a place for us in it. It is even more difficult to realize that God's plan might not make too much sense to us.
We are too used to hearing the messages about success which the great commercial enterprise is trying to feed us. How do you know when you have succeeded?
James and John don't know the meaning of success in God's kingdom. Today's Gospel story takes place right after Jesus has explained to his disciples that they are going to Jerusalem for the last time, and that he will be taken by the chief priests and will be handed over to be beaten and spit upon and put to death. And after three days he will rise again.
James and John follow this by asking for the places of highest honour when he comes into his glory. Wow, guys, nice sympathetic response!
James and John have been fed the same message as we get. In order to be successful, you must be better than the rest. Your success is measured in terms of where you are on the pecking order. Life is a competition and the one with the most toys wins.
This is the message of success which makes people want more and more. One always needs to keep up with the Joneses. Being successful means that you must excel in whatever you do. In order for you to be a success, others have to fail. It's a win/lose situation.
Jesus knows that this is not God's way. In God's eyes, it's not how you measure up in comparison to other people that counts: it's about how well you live as you were meant to be. God has a dream for you. Success for you is in realizing and fulfilling that dream.
For many people this might mean they will never be famous: they might never be rich, but they might, nonetheless be living out God's purpose in small and unnoticed ways. Sometimes this looks like the opposite of most people's understanding of success. For Jesus, it meant that he was even going to go to the cross and be executed. Yet God still had a purpose for Jesus that was even stronger than the bond of death and destruction.
Jesus, as usual, turns people's thinking upside down. "But it is not so among you: but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man cam not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."
God created each one us to be different. And because of that, we can each be successful without impeding anyone else's success. At some point we might realize that our real success has something to do with how we are in relationship with other people. God's dream for us is about that. How do we enable others to find their purpose? How do we become the servant in the way that Jesus means?
While many might only see defeat and loss in a life which is given in servanthood, the servant can simply be present to the beauty in a life which is rich in relationships and purpose. Sort of like seeing the beauty of the Fall colours and being present to them. It is a life which is wonderfully right.
Have you caught a sense of what is God's dream for you? What is your service? How are you being present to the beauty of God's purpose for you?
